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| Set: |  Classic |
|---|---|
| Type: | Spell |
| Class: |  Mage |
| Rarity: | Free |
| Cost: | 2  |
| Abilities: | Deal damage |
| Wiki tags: | Area of effect |
| Artist: | Howard Lyon |
This spell is much better than Arcane Implosion.
Arcane Explosion is a mage spell card, from the Basic set.
How to get
Prior Year of the Gryphon's rotation on March 30, 2021:
- Two copies of Arcane Explosion were automatically included in all players' collections upon unlocking the mage class.
- Two Golden copies of Arcane Explosion were a reward for raising a mage to levels 28 and 30.
Strategy
Arcane Explosion is very useful for clearing enemy minions from the board and destroying Divine Shields, and represents one of the mage's main defensive plays against aggro decks. While its low damage makes it primarily useful against low-health minions, with Spell Damage minions the spell can be improved to deal substantial damage to each enemy minion.
This spell is ideally saved until it can be used to deal damage to several opponents, or until Spell Damage can be gained to amplify its effects. With a full board of enemy minions and a couple of spell damage minions on the mage's side, this 2 mana spell can deal more than 20 points of damage in total.
When playing against early-game aggro decks, mages may wish to save this for the mid-game, when the mage's opponent may have the chance to put several of their weaker minions into play at once, in an attempt to overwhelm the mage. This includes 'Berserker' warriors, healing-oriented priests, warlocks and murloc decks.
As a cheap spell, Arcane Explosion can also be used in combination with other spells, such as using 
Frostbolt, Fireblast or even a second Arcane Explosion to finish off tougher targets. Flamestrike is Arcane Explosion's more explosive, but also more expensive, "Big Brother".
This card can be replaced by 
Twilight Flamecaller, having the same effect while also summoning a 2/2 minion for one more mana.
Lore
Arcane Explosion is a mage spell from World of Warcraft. It is an instant AoE effect, used primarily for clearing out low-health trash mobs, and by Arcane mages to fuel their Arcane Barrage spell. It is very effective for dealing AoE damage while moving, and for bringing nearby rogues out of stealth. This card's flavor text is purely humorous: no spell named Arcane Implosion actually exists.
Trivia
- The artwork for this card comes from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game "Scourgewar" series, for the card Arcane Burst.
Gallery
Arcane Explosion, full art
Patch changes
Patch 1.0.0.3140 (Alpha, April or May 2013): Text changed from "Deal 1 damage to all enemies" to "Deal 1 damage to all enemy minions".
